Building Observable Systems with eBPF and Linux (with Mohammed Aboullaite)
How do you monitor distributed systems that span dozens of microservices, multiple languages, and different databases? The old approach of gathering logs from different machines and recompiling apps with profiling flags doesn't scale when you're running thousands of servers. You need a unified strategy that works everywhere, on every component, in every language—and that means tackling the problem from the kernel level up.Mohammed Aboullaite is a backend engineer at Spotify, and he joins us to explore the latest in continuous profiling and observability using eBPF. We dive into how eBPF lets you programmatically peek into the Linux kernel without recompiling it, why companies like Google and Meta run profiling across their entire infrastructure, and how to manage the massive data volumes that continuous profiling generates. Mohammed walks through specific tools like Pyroscope, Pixie, and Parca, explains the security model of loading code into the kernel, and shares practical advice on overhead thresholds, storage strategies, and getting organizational buy-in for continuous profiling.Whether you're debugging performance issues, optimizing for scale, or just want to see what your code is really doing in production, this episode covers everything from packet filters to cultural changes in service of getting a clear view of your software when it hits production.---Support Developer Voices on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DeveloperVoicesSupport Developer Voices on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices/joineBPF: https://ebpf.io/Google-Wide Profiling Paper (2010): https://research.google.com/pubs/archive/36575.pdfGoogle pprof: https://github.com/google/pprofContinuous Profiling Tools:Pyroscope (Grafana): https://grafana.com/oss/pyroscope/Pixie (CNCF): https://px.dev/Parca: https://www.parca.dev/Datadog Continuous Profiler: https://www.datadoghq.com/product/code-profiling/Supporting Technologies:OpenTelemetry: https://opentelemetry.io/Grafana: https://grafana.com/New Relic: https://newrelic.com/Envoy Proxy: https://www.envoyproxy.io/Spring Cloud Sleuth: https://spring.io/projects/spring-cloud-sleuthMohammed Aboullaite:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aboullaite/GitHub: https://github.com/aboullaiteWebsite: http://aboullaite.meTwitter/X: https://twitter.com/laytounKris on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/krisajenkins.bsky.socialKris on Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
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Solving Git's Pain Points with Jujutsu (with Martin von Zweigbergk)
Git might be the most ubiquitous tool in software development, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. What if we could keep Git compatibility while fixing its most frustrating aspects—painful merges, scary rebases, being stuck in conflict states, and the confusing staging area?This week we're joined by Martin von Zweigbergk, creator of Jujutsu (JJ), a Git-compatible version control system that takes a fundamentally different approach. Starting from a simple idea—automatically snapshotting your working copy—Martin has built a tool that reimagines how we interact with version control. We explore the clever algebra behind Jujutsu's conflict handling that lets you store conflicts as commits and move freely through your repository even when things are broken. We discuss why there's no staging area, how the operation log gives you powerful undo/redo capabilities, and why rebasing becomes trivially easy when you can edit any commit in your history and have changes automatically propagate forward.Whether you're a Git power user frustrated by interactive rebases, someone who's lost work to a botched merge, or just curious about how version control could work differently, this conversation offers fresh perspectives on a tool we all take for granted. And if you're working with large monorepos or game development assets, Martin's vision for the future of Jujutsu might be exactly what you've been waiting for.---Support Developer Voices on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DeveloperVoicesSupport Developer Voices on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices/joinJujutsu (JJ): https://github.com/martinvonz/jjJujutsu Documentation: https://martinvonz.github.io/jj/Git: https://git-scm.com/Mercurial: https://www.mercurial-scm.org/Rust: https://www.rust-lang.org/Watchman: https://facebook.github.io/watchman/Google Piper: https://research.google/pubs/why-google-stores-billions-of-lines-of-code-in-a-single-repository/Kris on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/krisajenkins.bsky.socialKris on Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
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Getting New Technology Adopted (with Dov Katz)
Getting new technology adopted in a large organization can feel like pushing water uphill. The best tools in the world are useless if we're not allowed to use them, and as companies grow, their habits turn into inertia, then into "the way we've always done things." So how do you break through that resistance and get meaningful change to happen?This week's guest is Dov Katz from Morgan Stanley, who specializes in exactly this challenge - driving developer productivity and getting new practices adopted across thousands of developers. We explore the art of organizational change from every angle: How do you get management buy-in? How do you build grassroots developer enthusiasm? When should you use deterministic tools like OpenRewrite versus AI-powered solutions? And what role does open source play in breaking down the walls between competing financial institutions?Whether you're trying to modernize a legacy codebase, reduce technical debt, or just get your team to try that promising new tool you've discovered, this conversation offers practical strategies for navigating the complex dynamics of enterprise software development. Because sometimes the hardest part of our job isn't writing code - it's getting permission to write better code.---Support Developer Voices on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DeveloperVoicesSupport Developer Voices on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices/joinMorgan Stanley: https://www.morganstanley.com/OpenRewrite: https://docs.openrewrite.org/Spring Framework: https://spring.io/Spring Integration: https://spring.io/projects/spring-integrationApache Camel: https://camel.apache.org/FINOS (FinTech Open Source Foundation): https://www.finos.org/Linux Foundation: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/Moderne (Code Remix conference organizers): https://www.moderne.io/Code Remix Conference: https://www.moderne.io/eventsKris on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/krisajenkins.bsky.socialKris on Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
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From Unit Tests to Whole Universe Tests (with Will Wilson)
How confident are you when your test suite goes green? If you're honest, probably not 100% confident - because most bugs come from scenarios we never thought to test. Traditional testing only catches the problems we anticipate, but the 3am pager alerts? Those come from the unexpected interactions, timing issues, and edge cases we never imagined.In this episode, Will Wilson from Antithesis takes us deep into the world of autonomous testing. They've built a deterministic hypervisor that can simulate entire distributed systems - complete with fake AWS services - and intelligently explore millions of possible states to find bugs before production. Think property-based testing, but for your entire infrastructure stack. The approach is so thorough they've even used it to find glitches in Super Mario Brothers (seriously).We explore how deterministic simulation works at the hypervisor level, why traditional integration tests are fundamentally limited, and how you can write maintainable tests that actually find the bugs that matter. If you've ever wished you could test "what happens when everything that can go wrong does go wrong," this conversation shows you how that's finally becoming possible.---Support Developer Voices on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DeveloperVoicesSupport Developer Voices on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices/joinAntithesis: https://antithesis.com/Antithesis testing with Super Mario: https://antithesis.com/blog/sdtalk/...and with Metroid: https://antithesis.com/blog/2025/metroid/MongoDB: https://www.mongodb.com/etcd (Linux Foundation): https://etcd.io/Facebook Hermit: https://github.com/facebookexperimental/hermitRR (Record-Replay Debugger): https://rr-project.org/T-SAN (Thread Sanitizer): https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ThreadSanitizer.htmlToby Bell's Strange Loop Talk on JPL Testing: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=toby+bell+strange+loop+jplAndy Weir - Project Hail Mary: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54493401-project-hail-maryAndy Weir - The Martian: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martianAntithesis Blog (Nintendo Games Testing): https://antithesis.com/blog/Kris on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/krisajenkins.bsky.socialKris on Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
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Building Render: Inside a Modern Cloud Platform (with Anurag Goel)
How would you build a Heroku-like platform from scratch? This week we're diving deep into the world of cloud platforms and infrastructure with Anurag Goel, founder and CEO of Render.Starting from the seemingly simple task of hosting a web service, we quickly discover why building a production-ready platform is far more complex than it appears. Why is hosting a Postgres database so challenging? How do you handle millions of users asking for thousands of different features? And what's the secret to building infrastructure that developers actually want to use?We explore the technical challenges of building enterprise-grade services—from implementing reliable backups and high availability to managing private networking and service discovery. Anurag shares insights on choosing between infrastructure-as-code versus configuration, why they built on Go, and how they handle 100 billion requests per month.Plus, we discuss the impact of AI on platform adoption: Are LLMs already influencing which platforms developers choose? Will hosting platforms need to actively support agentic workflows? And what does the future hold for automated debugging?Whether you're curious about building your own platform, want to understand what really happens behind your cloud provider's dashboard, or just enjoy hearing war stories from the infrastructure trenches, this episode has something for you.–Support Developer Voices on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DeveloperVoicesSupport Developer Voices on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices/joinRender: https://render.com/Render’s MCP Server (Early Access): https://render.com/docs/mcp-serverPulumi: https://www.pulumi.com/Victoria Metrics: https://victoriametrics.comLoki: https://vector.dev/docs/reference/configuration/sinks/loki/Vector: https://vector.dev/Kris on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/krisajenkins.bsky.socialKris on Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/
Deep-dive discussions with the smartest developers we know, explaining what they're working on, how they're trying to move the industry forward, and what we can learn from them.You might find the solution to your next architectural headache, pick up a new programming language, or just hear some good war stories from the frontline of technology.Join your host Kris Jenkins as we try to figure out what tomorrow's computing will look like the best way we know how - by listening directly to the developers' voices.
France